aside from satellite radio, what's the next best thing?

nope. not at all

 

An idea I have had for a long time is to mount a satellite tv dish thing that self tracks the signals while in motion. They have all kinds of music channels 1000% commercial free.
Probably would not be cheaper though.

 

I get satellite radio for free. I called to cancel and they never turned it off. Haven't charged me a dime since (the account it drafted from has long been closed anyway ) it's been about 3 years now with free sirius radio.

 

I have satellite but also use my iPod nano quite a bit. Have about 48 hours of music on it so can go several days without a repeat, unlike satellite.

 

Download podcasts onto your phone when home or at TS with wifi. I stream constantly thanks to my grandfathered in unlimited data.

 

I have a black box called screen play pro XD from Iomega, it's very compact
It has a hard drive with software in it that you can store AVI mp3 or mp4 files and then through a USB port or RCA connectors, conect it to your TV and play movies TV programs or music that you've stored in it. It comes with it's own Remote control and it has capacity for more then 300 full movies in it, you can download movies from the internet in your laptop or have your spouse or anybody copy anything you like to watch in a memory stick, and then watch them in your truck.

 

Get the Audible app on your phone, it costs money but hey you can listen to all kinds of books

 

I love to listen to the voices in my head arguing...oh wait, that is just the overhead cb speaker....nevermind

Seriously, I stream Slacker radio (similar to Pandora without all the buffering). I too am on a grandfathered unlimited Verizon plan. Between music, my Netflix, Youtube and Dish Anywhere app, I use between 125 and 175 gig a month depending on how many days I stay out and have never been contacted or throttled. I've never checked, but the music streaming doesn't use too much data because my wife uses her phone to stream Slacker as well and she is on a 5 gig limited plan. The free version of Slacker has a few commercials every 4 or 5 songs. There is a couple of upgraded packages available...for 3.99/mo you get commercial free and unlimited skips, for 9.99/mo you also get on demand service.

I use to have Sorryass/XM years ago, before they merged...until I tried to cancel. I got sick of the same songs over and over. If you switched to a different channel within the same genre of music, it was the same songs, in a different order. When I tried to cancel, they wouldn't cancel without an early termination fee...so I told them to NOT renew my service, and removed my authorization to remove money from my checking account, removed my checking account number from my Sorryass membership account...and trusted that they wouldn't screw me. Big mistake. They took a full years subscription out and automatically renewed my service anyway causing me to overdraw my checking account on several small checks (we use to only transfer enough money out of savings each week to cover bills, the rest stayed in savings)...it took my bank and a lawyer threatening legal action before I got my subscription fees returned, but I was still screwed out of the returned check fees from the people I wrote the checks to (the bank removed their overdraft charges once it was settled). I will never subscribe to those thieving ######## service again as long as I live (Sorryass/XM I mean)... Slacker also has a downloadable option. When you're home, you can download hours of up to 25 stations to play when you're in a bad cell area or don't have the data to spare to stream live. As far as coverage, with Verizon, I have very little issues with buffering or lack of signal because it preloads a song or two ahead so that when you hit those intermittent dead zones, it doesn't skip. The only drawback is that it isn't local, so if you need local weather or traffic, Slacker won't have it....but iHeart radio has 750 actual stations from around the country, so you can find one for the local stuff.

 

It depends on the station. I believe that the FCC requires their HD1 channel to be the same content as their analog signal. Some stations use their full digital bandwidth on that one channel, and it really does sound darn close to CD quality.

Other stations can add additional channels. Some stations run 24/7 weather. Others run other formats altogether; a classic rock station may have an album rock channel, an adult contemporary channel, and a country channel. I know that KDKA Pittsburgh (an AM station) is carried as a channel by the company's FM station, so people with a lot of AM interference can still listen.

Check hdradio.com for content in your area. You'll likely find HD Radio in major metro areas. I had it in one of my cars, and I do like it. Not enough to spend the money for a new stereo, though.